Hackney Community Transport (HCT) - 103 staff 50 volunteers
Changing volunteer roles
HCT provides transport for people with mobility needs
in the London Borough of Hackney. Jude Winter, Deputy
Director, joined the organisation when it was going
through major changes in the mid 1990s. 'Previously
most of our services were run by volunteers but we were
getting more and more work which had to be done by paid
professional drivers. For a while we were asking volunteers
to do some of this work and paying them for it, but
clearly this wasn't compatible with a volunteer role
and we had to clarify the boundaries between voluntary
and paid work.
'Some volunteers were upset about the the changes we
were trying to introduce and saw this as cutting off
a source of income to which they felt entitled. Some
staff were also unhappy because they could no longer
call on volunteers to work if no staff drivers were
available. From the volunteer meetings it was clear
we needed a proper transition between volunteering and
paid employment.
'We introduced a European-funded driving course with
a recognised qualification. This proved to be a popular
stepping-stone to paid work for unemployed volunteers.
However, as people signed up for the course, our volunteer
numbers reduced! But it turned out to be easier to recruit
new volunteers now that we had clarified the volunteer
roles and their benefits. During this time we got a
lot of support from the British Association of Settlements
and Social Action Centres (BASSAC) and were able to
able to access their good practice guidelines.
'It took really about a year for people to get used
to the new way of working. We had to be very clear procedurally
and make sure that the system couldn't be abused. The
whole process felt very bureaucratic and people were
obviously protective of their own roles. We did lose
some volunteers who felt hard done by.
'What we learned was the importance of consultation
and consistency when implementing any changes. But no
matter how consistent you are, some people still feel
hurt. It's important to keep up-to-date with good practice,
it's easy to let it slide when things are going well
but you do need to keep up with things, I recommend
joining a wider voluntary sector network to everyone.'
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